Tuesday, January 22, 2008

We are very proud to inform you that a SAC-USA chapter has been formed. Below are its activities for the next few weeks. Please go through it, and forward any suggestions.

I wanted to give you update of our activities in US.

SAC-Us has eight core members (six current students and two recent alumnus)in four different areas; Nothern VA/DC, Philadelphia, Boston and New York City. Our short term activities are as follows:

1. We participated in Washington-Pakistan Forum meeting on Jan 18th in Washington, DC where a number of organizations were represented. Some of them are AIUSA (Amnesty International USA), ABA (American Bar Association), CPJ (Community for Protection of Journalists), Dawn News, Daily TImes News, PTI, PALC (Pakistani American Leadership Committee) and introduced everyone to the activities of SAC-Lahore, Islamabad and US.

2. We have participated and will participate in all the Pakistan related talks/conferences/seminars in different think tanks in Washington, DC and elsewhere (e.g. SAIS, CSIS, MEI). We make sure that our point of view is heard in the question and answer session.

3. We will be meeting with PTI on Wednesday to sign a memorendum of understanding demanding their role in democratic process inside or outside the parliament. We will also be meeting with PPP representatives during next week.

4. During the next two weeks almost 5 campuses will be holding an awareness raising event. The primary objective of it will be to apprise students at US universities of current political situation in Pakistan. The event will also be used to introduce students to SAC-Lahore and Islamabad and its activities followed by a talk. We will be very happy to add whatever you want to send us to add to this presentation.

5. Following the event, we will hold protests in all the represented cities against 'elections without judiciary and independent election commission and interim government.

6. We will participate in an advocacy event on Capitol Hill along with other organizations like Amnesty International. The event is tentatively being planned for first or second week of February.

7. We are also thinking of setting up a committe/getting endorsement from different international organizations.

I also want to reiterate that you guys are doing great work. Your work is truly an inspiration for all of us. Establishment of SAC-USA is one consequence of it.